Recently scientists at Harvard University presented an astonishing achievement. They created an artificial stingray robot, partially from living cells of a rat heart. The device (or whatever you call a half organic / half machine thing) is steered through light signals.

This is the result of a combination of many different scientific areas that worked together to create something the world has never seen before. And it makes me think about innovation.

At business school we talk about innovation to find new ways to combine processes and systems. From a microeconomic point of view it is a lot about reducing transaction costs. Entrepreneurs look at using existing technology to address un(der)served needs of potential customers. Many different definitions and with that many views on how to achieve innovation (as an organization) and how to be innovative (as an individual).

But the stingray robot to me is real innovation. Overcoming obstacles and creating a physical product that has never been created before, thereby combining knowledge from different areas of basic research. This is the kind of innovation that will not have an application in business right away and won't be making money right now. But it's the kind of innovation that we will need to develop new solutions, whether they are in robotics, automation, medicine, or engineering. And only those new solutions will allow entrepreneurs and business-savvy people to create business models around them.

Having a background in economics and business, talking to "real" scientists is always a humbling experience. While we might understand how people act in markets, what those markets can achieve in terms of efficiency - or what they lack in terms of ethics or fairness, scientists look at the world around us very differently. It is thanks to those people that we have the type of technology available today that makes our lives so easy (In the term scientist I do absolutely include people, who weren't acknowledged by the academics of their time but have created so much for mankind through their innovation).

May be it would serve us all to think about whether the "innovation" we're working on so desperately really deserves that name. If not, the hurdle for us to invest our time and money in it should be considerably higher - if only because we could invest both in things that really make a difference for people.